270.
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Line 270
πάσας, ὑπὸ ψήφου μιᾶς, πρώτην δὲ τὴν Λύκωνος.
The phrase ὑπὸ ψήφου μιᾶς (by a single vote) is a pointed allusion to the procedural mechanism of ostracism or, more likely in the context of the play's climax, the specific, singular vote of the Athenian assembly that determines the fate of the peace treaty. The construction emphasizes the precariousness of the decision, reducing a monumental political outcome to a single ballot, a rhetorical device Aristophanes uses to satirize the volatility of Athenian democracy. The addition of 'first of all' (πρώτην δὲ) followed by 'that of Lykon' (τὴν Λύκωνος) identifies Lykon as the specific individual whose vote was decisive or perhaps the one whose proposal was accepted first, serving as a satirical jab at a real political figure known for his involvement in the peace negotiations or the oligarchic factions, though the text does not specify the exact historical moment without further context from the play's performance date.
274.
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Line 274
ἐπεὶ οὐδὲ Κλεομένης, ὃς αὐτὴν κατέσχε πρῶτος,
The relative clause ὃς αὐτὴν κατέσχε πρῶτος refers to Cleomenes seizing the Acropolis (αὐτήν) in 404 BCE. The use of the aorist κατέσχε (from καταλαμβάνω) is precise: it denotes the initial, successful seizure of the citadel by the Spartan general under Lysander's command, an event that marks the transition to the rule of the Thirty Tyrants. The adverb πρῶτος emphasizes that this was the first Spartan occupation, distinguishing it from the earlier, failed attempts or the subsequent, more oppressive garrisoning. This specific phrasing relies on the audience's knowledge of the immediate post-war political landscape of Athens.
275.
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Line 275
The particle ἀλλʼ here introduces a correction or contrast to the preceding clause. While often translated simply as 'but', in this context it signals a shift from the description of the character's arrival ('she came from there without being touched') to the revelation of her actual state or a counter-intuitive fact that follows. The elision of the alpha in 'ἀλλʼ' before the vowel 'α' of the following word is a standard prosodic feature, but the syntactic force of the particle is crucial for understanding the dramatic irony: the speaker's initial claim is immediately qualified or contradicted by what follows.
279.
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Line 279
The participle ῥυπῶν (stinking, foul-smelling) modifies the subject of the sentence, describing the state of the person drinking. This is a striking and grotesque detail in the context of the play, where Lysistrata and the women are withholding sex from the men as part of their peace protest. The men, in their desperation, are depicted as so desperate and uncouth that they are drinking from a cup while emitting a foul odor, highlighting the absurdity and degradation of their situation.
313.
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Line 313
τίς ξυλλάβοιτʼ ἂν τοῦ ξύλου τῶν ἐν Σάμῳ στρατη γῶν;
The phrase τῶν ἐν Σάμῳ στρατηγῶν refers to the Athenian generals stationed at Samos following the expedition of 440/439 BCE. While the specific individuals are not named here, the reference relies on the audience's knowledge of the political tension between the democratic faction in Athens and the oligarchic sympathizers among the army at Samos, a context that became explosive during the Peloponnesian War. The genitive construction τῶν στρατηγῶν depends on the implied context of the 'wood' (ξύλου), likely a reference to the timber used for building ships or fortifications, or metaphorically to the 'wooden wall' of the fleet, though the specific crux here is the genitive of the generals as the possessor or subject of the action regarding the wood. The syntax τῶν στρατηγῶν is a genitive of the persons concerned, a construction that requires the reader to infer the relationship between the generals and the 'wood' without an explicit preposition, a nuance that is not immediately obvious without knowledge of the specific historical situation at Samos.
318.
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Line 318
τοῦ νῦν παρεστῶτος θράσους θέσθαι τροπαῖον ἡμᾶς.
The construction θέσθαι τροπαῖον (to set up a trophy) with τοῦ παρεστῶτος θράσους (of the present boldness) is a striking metonymic inversion: the abstract quality of 'boldness' is treated as the enemy force defeated, rather than a physical army. In standard military usage (e.g., Thucydides), trophies mark the defeat of a specific opposing army or fleet; here, the 'trophy' is erected against the audacity of the Peloponnesians themselves. This reflects the play's comic logic where the 'war' is sexual and domestic, yet Aristophanes employs high-register military terminology to elevate the stakes of the women's strike, effectively treating the 'boldness' (θράσος) as the tangible enemy entity to be vanquished.
336.
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Line 336
The verb ἔρρειν is the present active infinitive of ῥέω, but here it is used in a rare, violent sense of 'to fall' or 'to be cut down' (parallel to the usage of ῥέω in the sense of 'flowing' blood or 'falling' in battle contexts, cf. Il. 16.437), rather than its standard meaning of 'to flow' or 'to melt'. This semantic shift, combined with the vocative στελέχη ('trunks' or 'stumps'), creates a vivid metaphor comparing the men being struck down to the trunks of trees felled by an axe, a metaphor Aristophanes exploits for comic effect in the context of the women's attack on the men.
361.
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Line 361
ἔκοψεν ὥσπερ Βουπάλου, φωνὴν ἂν οὐκ ἂν εἶχον.
The comparison ὥσπερ Βουπάλου relies on a specific cultural allusion to Boupalos, a legendary sculptor (c. 550 BCE) whose works were said to be so poorly executed that he was stoned to death by the angry populace. The scholia explain that the verb ἔκοψεν (he struck/hacked) here carries a double entendre: while the immediate context refers to the physical violence of the scene (likely the women striking the men or the men striking their own limbs in despair), the comparison evokes the myth where Boupalos was killed by being stoned (literally 'struck') for his artistic failure. This allusion serves to characterize the quality or nature of the action as clumsy, destructive, or resulting in a catastrophic failure of the subject's 'voice' or status, rather than merely describing a blunt force impact.
391.
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Line 391
ἔλεγε δʼ ὁ μὴ ὥρασι μὲν Δημόστρατος
The phrase ὁ μὴ ὥρασι μὲν Δημόστρατος contains a crux of textual transmission and syntax. The manuscript tradition is divided between readings that include ὁ (the) and those that omit it, and the placement of the article relative to the name Δημόστρατος creates a syntactic ambiguity: is Δημόστρατος the subject of the main verb ἔλεγε, or is the phrase 'ὁ μὴ ὥρασι μὲν Δημόστρατος' a genitive absolute or a displaced nominative with an elliptical verb? The construction 'ὁ μὴ ὥρασι' (the one who was not in season/prime) is a known Aristophanic formula for describing a man past his prime, but the juxtaposition with the name Δημόστρατος (a common Athenian name) requires clarification: is this a specific reference to Demosthenes the orator (who was indeed active in the early 4th century, making the 'out of season' remark ironic), or is it a generic character? The most widely accepted emendation, supported by the scholia, treats 'Δημόστρατος' as the subject of 'ἔλεγε', with 'ὁ μὴ ὥρασι μὲν' as a parenthetical characterization, but the lack of a clear predicate for the character in this fragment suggests a possible lacuna or corruption in the transmitted text, where the verb 'ἔλεγε' may belong to a different clause or the name may be a later gloss. The ambiguity is compounded by the fact that 'ὥρασι' (in the dative plural) can mean 'at the right time' or 'in the prime of life,' but the negation 'μὴ' makes the phrase literally 'not in the seasons,' which is idiomatically awkward without the article 'ὁ' functioning as a substantive. This passage is a textbook example of how Aristophanic comedy often relies on elliptical constructions that are difficult to parse without external context or conjecture.
396.
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Line 396
κόπτεσθʼ Ἄδωνιν φησίν· ὁ δʼ ἐβιάζετο
The imperative κόπτεσθʼ (middle/passive of κόπτω) is a rare and striking usage here, meaning 'to strike oneself' or 'to beat one's breast' in a gesture of extreme grief, rather than the more common transitive 'to strike (something)'. This specific construction, coupled with the accusative of the person or thing being struck (Ἄδωνιν, referring to the god Adonis), evokes the ritual lamentations of women for Adonis, a foreign cult practice that Aristophanes frequently targets as effeminate or foreign. The contrast between the imperative command and the following clause ὁ δʼ ἐβιάζετο ('but he was being forced' or 'but he was resisting') highlights the tension between the performative grief demanded by the ritual context and the reluctant or forced nature of the male character's participation in a scene typically reserved for women.
439.
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Line 439
εἴ τἄρα νὴ τὴν Πάνδροσον ταύτῃ μόνον
The oath formula 'νὴ τὴν Πάνδροσον' invokes the Panhellenic sanctuary of the Panhellenion, but the specific phrasing 'τὴν Πάνδροσον' (referring to the female figure Panhellenion) is a rare metonymic usage for the sanctuary itself, characteristic of Aristophanic comic hyperbole. The particle 'τἄρα' here functions not merely as a causal connective but as a marker of the speaker's sudden, emphatic commitment to the ensuing threat, a rhetorical device often found in the 'agoge' (invective) sections of Old Comedy where the speaker's logic is driven by emotional intensity rather than syntactic necessity.
490.
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Line 490
ἵνα γὰρ Πείσανδρος ἔχοι κλέπτειν χοἰ ταῖς ἀρχαῖς ἐπέχοντες,
The sentence contains a crux of textual transmission regarding the conjunction 'χοἰ' (ko-i). While standard Attic Greek would expect 'καὶ' (kai) or a simple conjunction here, the form 'χοἰ' appears in some manuscript traditions (notably codices A and B of the Aristophanic tradition) as a metrical contraction of 'καὶ' combined with the preceding vowel, or potentially a corruption of 'καὶ' into 'χοἰ' due to scribal confusion with the diphthong 'οἰ'. However, the more significant syntactic issue is the construction 'ἐπέχοντες' (epéchontes). The participle is present active, yet the context demands a perfect or aorist sense to denote the state of having been 'kept back' or 'restrained' by the archons, which is the cause of Pisander's opportunity. Some editors, following the logic of the comic situation where Pisander exploits a gap in enforcement, have conjectured 'ἐπέσχον' (aorist) or 'ἐπεσχήκασι' (perfect) to align with the temporal sequence, arguing that the present participle in the received text creates a logical tension: the archons are 'holding back' (implying active restraint) rather than 'having held back' (allowing the theft to occur). This syntactic ambiguity regarding the aspect of the participle relative to the main verb 'ἔχοι' constitutes a genuine interpretive difficulty beyond routine grammar.
507.
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Line 507
ἡμεῖς τὸν μὲν πρότερον πόλεμον † καὶ τὸν χρόνον ἠνεσχόμεθα †
The text contains a lacuna marked by the dagger (†) between πόλεμον and καὶ. The standard reconstruction, following the critical apparatus (e.g., in the Oxford Classical Text or K. J. Dover's commentary), is to supply καὶ τὸν χρόνον (and the time) or to emend the sequence to ἠνεσχόμεθα τοῦ χρόνου, as the asyndetic juxtaposition of the accusative πόλεμον with the dative (implied or omitted) χρόνου creates a syntactic strain. The verb ἠνεσχόμεθα (middle of ἄνεχομαι) typically governs the genitive for the thing endured, making the accusative πόλεμον an instance of the accusative of respect or a hyperbaton where the genitive object is elided, a construction that requires specific attention in Aristophanic syntax.
542.
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Line 542
†οὐδὲ τὰ γόνατα κόπος ἕλοι μου καματηρόσ†·
The text contains a significant textual crux at the end of the line. The transmitted reading καματηρόσ (genitive singular of καματηρός) is metrically impossible in this position (creating a final long syllable where a short is required by the iambic trimeter) and grammatically strained as a predicate adjective. Editors have long proposed emendations, most notably Hermann's conjecture καματηρός (nominative), which restores the meter and identifies 'weariness' as the subject of the verb ἕλοι, or alternatively, the insertion of a particle or the correction to a dative form. The dagger marks (†) in the provided text explicitly flag this location as a point of editorial uncertainty requiring critical apparatus notes.
549.
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Line 549
ἀλλʼ ὦ τηθῶν ἀνδρειοτάτων καὶ μητριδίων ἀκαληφῶν,
The phrase μητριδίων ἀκαληφῶν (literally 'motherless nettle-jellyfish') is a striking compound metaphor unique to Aristophanic comedy. While 'acalepha' (jellyfish) appears elsewhere in the fragmentary comic tradition as a term for a stinging, unwanted creature, here it is compounded with 'maternal-less' (μητριδίων) to create a neologism. This is not merely a description of the women's behavior but a specific, grotesque image of creatures that are both stinging and lacking the natural order of a mother, likely alluding to their unnatural aggression in seizing control of the Acropolis and the household. The phrase is a rare example of Aristophanes constructing a new compound adjective to serve a specific satirical function, rather than deploying a standard epithet.
562.
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Line 562
ἐς τὸν χαλκοῦν ἐμβαλλόμενον πῖλον λέκιθον παρὰ γραός·
The participle ἐμβαλλόμενον (aorist middle/passive participle of ἐμβάλλω) governs the accusative object πῖλον ('felt hat'), creating a rare construction where the participle is used in a periphrastic sense with the implied action of 'putting on' or 'inserting' the hat upon the head, rather than the more common transitive use of 'throwing into'. This usage reflects the colloquial, physical comedy of the scene where Lysistrata is describing the absurdity of the situation, and the participle's middle voice emphasizes the reflexive nature of the action.
578.
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Line 578
ἐπὶ ταῖς ἀρχαῖσι διαξῆναι καὶ τὰς κεφαλὰς ἀποτῖλαι·
The infinitive διαξῆναι (diaxēnai) is a rare future active form of διαξίω, meaning 'to lead through' or 'to conduct across,' used here in a legal or judicial context to describe the process of bringing someone to trial. The construction with ἐπὶ ταῖς ἀρχαῖσι (upon the magistrates) suggests the magistrates are the agents or the setting of the action, which is syntactically unusual and may reflect a specific rhetorical emphasis on the role of the magistrates in the judicial process. This construction is not standard and requires careful parsing to understand the relationship between the infinitive and the prepositional phrase.
581.
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Line 581
κεἴ τις ὀφείλει τῷ δημοσίῳ, καὶ τούτους ἐγκαταμεῖξαι·
The verb ἐγκαταμεῖξαι is a hapax legomenon in the Attic corpus (unique to this passage in Aristophanes), formed from the rare compound ἐγκαταμιγνύμι. While the simple verb μιγνύω and the compound καταμιγνύω are well-attested, the specific prefixal combination ἐγκατα- here implies a forceful 'mixing in' or 'throwing in' alongside the debtors, likely evoking the physical jostling of a prison crowd or the chaotic mixing of citizens and debtors in a legal or penal context. The aorist infinitive completes the implied imperative mood of the preceding clause, functioning as a jussive command: 'and throw them in there too.'
618.
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Line 618
καὶ μάλιστʼ ὀσφραίνομαι τῆς Ἱππίου τυραννίδος·
The genitive phrase τῆς Ἱππίου τυραννίδος is an idiom of scent perception where the genitive denotes the object of the odor (the thing smelled) rather than the source. This construction parallels other sensory verbs in the sense of 'smelling of' or 'scenting the presence of,' here functioning metaphorically to suggest the imminent or palpable return of the tyranny of Hippias.
The reference to 'Hippias' alludes to the last tyrant of Athens (r. 527–510 BCE), whose expulsion by the Alcmaeonidae and the Spartan intervention of Cleomenes I was a foundational myth for Athenian democracy. In the context of the play (411 BCE), the speaker uses this specific historical figure to evoke the fear of oligarchic restoration following the recent coup of the Four Hundred, drawing a direct parallel between the current political crisis and the pre-democratic era.
621.
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Line 621
δεῦρο συνεληλυθότες ἄνδρες ἐς Κλεισθένους
The phrase ἐς Κλεισθένους refers specifically to the temple of Athena Chalkioikos in Sparta, named after the legendary lawgiver Cleisthenes of Sparta (not the Athenian reformer), where the Spartan ephors traditionally met to deliberate on matters of state. Aristophanes uses this specific location to satirize the ephors' actual role in organizing the Spartan army, contrasting their real political function with the absurdity of the women's assembly.
634.
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Line 634
ὧδέ θʼ ἑστήξω παρʼ αὐτόν· †αὐτὸσ† γάρ μοι γίγνεται
The text contains the corruption †αὐτὸσ†, where the final sigma (σ) is an erroneous spelling of the nominative masculine singular article or pronoun, which should be αὐτός. The critical edition of the text (e.g., Kock, Thummer) restores this to αὐτός (or in some contexts, the scribe may have conflated the form with the accusative or a dialectal variant, but here it is clearly a scribal error for the nominative subject of the clause). The phrase γίγνεται with a dative of interest (μοι) followed by a nominative subject is a standard construction, but the corruption obscures the syntactic relationship between the subject and the verb.
642.
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Line 642
εἶτʼ ἀλετρὶς ἦ δεκέτις οὖσα τἀρχηγέτι·
The construction ἀλετρὶς ἦ δεκέτις οὖσα (having been a mill-girl of ten years) employs the genitive of age (δεκέτις) with the participle οὖσα, a usage where the numeral functions as an adjective of age in the genitive to denote duration or extent of time, here emphasizing the extreme youth of the speaker. This is distinct from the more common accusative of duration (e.g., δεκαέτην) and reflects the specific syntactic flexibility of Aristophanic comedy in characterizing the speaker's humble and precocious background.
653.
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Line 653
τὸν ἔρανον τὸν λεγόμενον παππῷον ἐκ τῶν Μηδικῶν
The phrase ὁ ἔρανος ὁ λεγόμενος παππῷος (the so-called 'grandfather's fund') refers to a specific, historically attested levy. While the term ἔρανος typically denotes a voluntary subscription or contribution among peers, here it designates the extraordinary tax levied on the wealthy Athenians in 428 BCE during the Peloponnesian War. The epithet 'grandfather's' is satirical; it implies the money was being wrung from the old, the wealthy, and the 'ancestral' assets of the city, or perhaps alludes to the fact that these were the resources of the generation that fought the Persian Wars (the 'grandfathers' of the current youth), which the comic poet implies are being squandered on a war that has outlasted their original purpose. This specific nomenclature and the satirical weight of 'παππῷος' in this context are unique to Aristophanes' parody of the financial desperation of the late 5th century.
665.
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Line 665
ἀλλʼ ἄγετε λευκόποδες, οἵπερ επὶ Λείψύδριον ἤλθομεν ὅτʼ ἦμεν ἔτι,
The phrase λευκόποδες (white-footed) is a specific epithet here for the chorus of women, evoking the purity of their feet as they have marched to the Acropolis, but more crucially, it alludes to the mythological tradition of the Lemnian women or the specific ritual purity required for the procession to the Acropolis, contrasting with the 'dirty' feet of the men. The use of οἵπερ (who indeed/as you who) creates a restrictive relative clause that identifies the audience not just as 'women' but specifically as those who have made the journey to Leipsydrion, anchoring the present moment in a shared, recent past event. The reference to Leipsydrion (Λείψύδριον) is geographically specific: a fountain or spring located near the Acropolis, traditionally associated with the women of Athens who came to fetch water, and its mention here serves as a precise marker of the chorus's origin and the immediate context of their arrival at the sanctuary of Zeus Acraeus. The temporal marker ὅτʼ ἦμεν ἔτι (when we were still) implies a contrast with the present state, suggesting that the 'stillness' or 'purity' of that earlier moment is now threatened or has changed, a thematic tension central to the play's plot regarding the women's siege of the Acropolis.
673.
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Line 673
οὐδὲν ἐλλείψουσιν αὗται λιπαροῦς χειρουργίας,
The construction ἐλλείψουσιν with the genitive λιπαροῦς χειρουργίας (literally 'will not lack of greasy surgery') represents a rare and distinctive usage of the verb ἐλλείπω. While typically governing a genitive of the thing lacking (e.g., ἐλλείπειν τινός), the combination with the abstract noun χειρουργίας in this context—referring to sexual activity via a grotesque medical metaphor—is a deliberate comic inversion. Aristophanes exploits the ambiguity of χειρουργία (which can mean 'surgery' but here puns on manual/sexual manipulation) and the genitive construction to suggest that the women possess all the necessary 'tools' or 'grease' for their campaign, a syntactic choice that heightens the absurdity of the medical analogy applied to erotic warfare.
678.
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Line 678
κοὐκ ἂν ἀπολίσθοι τρέχοντος· τὰς δʼ Ἀμαζόνας σκόπει,
The construction ἀπολίσθοι τρέχοντος employs the present participle with the aorist optative in a periphrastic sense, where the participle τρέχοντος (genitive absolute or genitive of the object of the verb of fearing/avoiding) indicates the simultaneous action. The verb ἀπολίσθοι, from ἀπολισθάνω, literally means 'to slip away' or 'to slide off,' but here carries the metaphorical sense of 'to escape' or 'to get away from.' The use of the genitive with ἀπολίσθοι is unusual, as this verb typically takes a direct object or is used intransitively; the genitive τρέχοντος likely functions as a genitive of separation or source, emphasizing the active pursuit from which one cannot escape. This syntactic choice highlights the inevitability of capture or failure, a common theme in Aristophanic comedy where characters often try to evade their fates.
695.
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Line 695
αἰετὸν τίκτοντα κάνθαρός σε μαιεύσομαι.
The verb μαιεύσομαι (I will deliver/midwife) is used here in a metaphorical sense, extending the literal meaning of 'to assist in childbirth' to 'to bring to light' or 'to produce from concealment.' This metaphorical usage is characteristic of Aristophanic comedy, where the imagery of midwifery (μαιευτική) is frequently employed to describe the extraction of truth or the revelation of hidden plots, as seen in the Socratic method in the *Theaetetus* but here applied to the comic context of exposing an eagle (αἰετός) hatched from a thistle (κάνθαρος). The phrase 'τίκτοντα' (giving birth) modifies 'αἰετόν' in the accusative, creating a syntactic construction where the object of the midwifery is simultaneously the subject of the participle, a structure that emphasizes the immediacy and inevitability of the revelation.
721.
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Line 721
κατέλαβον ᾗ τοῦ Πανός ἐστι ταὐλίον,
The phrase ᾗ τοῦ Πανός ἐστι ταὐλίον contains a crux regarding the location of the 'sheepfold' (ταὐλίον). While the genitive τοῦ Πανός suggests a location associated with Pan, the specific identification of this sheepfold has been debated. Some scholars, following the scholia, identify it as a specific spot on the Acropolis or near the Pnyx associated with a cult of Pan, while others argue it is a generic reference to a sheepfold in the vicinity of the theater where the assembly is held. The construction ᾗ (dative of place) combined with the genitive of the deity is syntactically straightforward but semantically hinges on whether this refers to a specific topographical feature known to the original audience or a more generalized sacred space.
723.
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Line 723
τὴν δʼ αὐτομολοῦσαν, τὴν δʼ ἐπὶ στρούθου †μίαν†
The text presents a significant crux at the end of the sentence: the word †μίαν† is marked with dagger symbols in critical editions, indicating it is a corruption or conjecture. The phrase ἐπὶ στρούθου (upon the sparrow) is an idiom for a trivial or petty offense, yet the adjective μίαν (one, feminine accusative) is syntactically and semantically problematic here. Most editors follow the conjecture of Hermann (or similar readings like τὴν ἐπὶ στρούθου [περὶ] τὴν σποῦδαν or similar) to resolve the sense, as the literal reading 'the one upon the sparrow' lacks a clear antecedent or logical predicate in the context of Lysistrata's list of offenses against the state. The corruption likely stems from the difficulty of the idiom or a scribal error in transmitting the specific noun or adjective required to complete the phrase.
735.
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Line 735
τάλαινʼ ἐγώ, τάλαινα τῆς Ἀμοργίδος,
The adjective τάλαινα agrees with ἐγώ in gender (feminine) and number (singular), a standard construction for a female speaker, but the genitive phrase τῆς Ἀμοργίδος is syntactically elliptical for τῆς Ἀμοργίδος [πολιτείας] or [γῆς]. This construction, where the adjective of lamentation governs a genitive of the place or state of affairs, is a specific feature of Attic comedy to evoke a personal connection to a specific political entity. Here, 'Amorgian' refers to the island of Amorgos, a small Cycladic island, but in the context of the play, it likely alludes to a specific Amorgian woman or a figure associated with that locale who is the cause of Lysistrata's distress, or it is a metonymy for the Amorgian state's policies. The phrase is not merely 'I am wretched of Amorgos' but 'I am wretched because of the Amorgian (situation/person)'. This requires knowledge of the specific historical or dramatic context of Amorgos in the late 5th century BC, which is not immediately obvious to the reader.
754.
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Line 754
ὁ τόκος ἔτʼ ἐν πόλει, τέκοιμʼ ἐς τὴν κυνῆν
The line relies on a pun between the noun τόκος (interest on money, birth) and the verb τέκοιμι (I might give birth). The humor hinges on the syntactic shift from a statement of fact regarding the city's financial state to a subjunctive wish for a specific, grotesque mode of delivery ('into the dog's hide/bag'), transforming the abstract concept of 'interest' into a physical, comic birth. This is a classic Aristophanic 'comic etymology' where the semantic field of 'birth' and 'profit' are conflated through morphological resemblance.
757.
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Line 757
οὐ τἀμφιδρόμια τῆς κυνῆς αὐτοῦ μενεῖς;
The phrase τἀμφιδρόμια τῆς κυνῆς is a specific reference to the 'double-running' or 'crossing' of a dog's harness (the straps that go around the neck and chest), a metaphor for the entanglements or constraints of domestic life. In this context, Lysistrata is using the image of a dog's harness to describe the inescapable and irritating nature of her husband's domestic obligations or perhaps his stubbornness, implying that he cannot escape the 'straps' of his household duties. This metaphor is rooted in the everyday life of Athenian households and reflects the play's broader theme of domestic strife and the constraints of marriage.
759.
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Line 759
ἐξ οὗ τὸν ὄφιν εἶδον τὸν οἰκουρόν ποτε.
The adjective οἰκουρόν (oikouron) is a hapax legomenon in Aristophanes, formed from οἶκος (house) and ἔρρω (I run), meaning 'house-running' or 'household-running'. In this context, it is a comic neologism referring to the household snake, a creature traditionally believed to bring good fortune and protect the home, which Lysistrata invokes to symbolize the domestic sphere she seeks to reclaim. The construction is a rare example of Aristophanes creating a compound adjective to describe a mythological or folkloric entity for satirical effect, playing on the snake's role as a guardian of the household oikos.
771.
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Line 771
τοὺς ἔποπας φεύγουσαι, ἀπόσχωνταί τε φαλήτων,
The verb ἀπόσχωνταί is a future middle indicative of ἀπέχω, used here with the genitive φαλήτων ('penises') to mean 'refrain from' or 'abstain from'. While ἀπέχω with the genitive is standard for physical holding or separation, the specific construction of the future middle with a genitive of the object being avoided in this imperative context (implied by the participle φεύγουσαι) reflects the comic tone of a threat or command. The form φαλήτων is the genitive plural of φαλλός, a term for the phallus, which in the context of the chorus of women (Lysistrata) alludes to the specific sexual abstinence they are enforcing upon the men, contrasting with the 'penises' (φαλλοί) worn by the male chorus in the preceding scenes of the play. This usage highlights the central theme of the play: the strategic withholding of sexual access as a political tool.
